The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, August 29, 1994, Page 9, Image 9
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STEPHEN BROWN Staff Writer
NATURAL BORN KILLERS
ir-kif h (out of four stars)
Mickey and Mallory Knox are popular beyond their
wildest imagination. Talented at what they do, admired by
millions, and very much in love, they lead a pure untainted
existence. Adorning the front covers of magazines, pursuing
their mission through cross-country travel and exploring new
ways they can make a difference in peoples' lives, the couple
has never felt as free to seek out the American Dream as they
do at this moment.
But Mickey and Mallows line of work might be shocking
to the average citizen. In Oliver Stone's gripping new adap
tanon or a yuentin i arantino story, iNaturai rsorn tuners ,
these two main characters are mass murderers who capture
the imagination of the American people during their massive
killing spree. Traversing the American landscape, the two
kill 52 people in three weeks, are arrested, and thafs just the
beginning.
The hallucinogenic images Oliver Stone puts on the screen
simply have to be seen to be believed. Employing a mixture
I of color with black and white cinematography and stylizing
the film through the calculated randomness of switching from
35mm to grainy 16mm, old film reels, super-8mm, and home
video style cameras, Stone plays with the audience as if he
were the media manipulating viewers to keep watching. He
motiw linhelievahle efforts as illuminated words annear on
bodies, as heads take on wavy morphing forms, and as gory
footage is laid in motion behind current action.
During one sequence, Mickey and Mallory make love in
-a neon-lit motel room with the television on and a stripped
c female hostage gagged in the corner. Outside the window,
5 Stone shows us footage of Nazis troops marching down a
street To these natural bom killers, everything around them,
inside and outside their minds, is comprised of systematic violence
and abuse. This sequence serves to demonstrate the
unending chain which continues today as strong as ever.
Stone switches dramatic tone of voice by using varying
formats to avoid straight narrative. Depicting criminal acts
as if they were part of a wicked game show, or a '70s adult
Bakshi cartoon or even re-enactments on a tabloid news program,
Stone lures viewers to focus their attention on the stars
of his visual media circus.
Stone's most memorable tool to satirize the tragedy of his
events is an early sequence modeled after a classic sitcom.
Titled " Love Mallorjr and featuring Rodney Dangerneld
and Edie McCluig as her parents, this absurd sequence gives
insight into Mallor/s years of sexual abuse and systematic
verbal torture. To the rhythm of canned laughter and live
audiencejnlarity, the spotlighted family makes incest jokes
around tne dinner table and gawks at Mallory's sexuality.
Both awkward and relentlessly audacious, this sequence
works equally well as satire and domestic tragedy of stupefying
proportions. Later when Mickey and Mallory kill her
parents and head out on their acid road-trip, Stone switches
tone again in his depiction of the savage and brutal revenge
the stars exact on their parental enemies.
Within minutes of the film's opening credits, Mickey and
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The University of South Carolina System provides e
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persons regardless of race, sex, religion, national ori
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designated ADA and section 504 coordinator the Ex
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KILLER STARS: Juliette Lewis and Woody Harrelson star as Mallory an
Mallory play target practice at a roadside diner. When a redneck
harasses her as she dances beside a jukebox, he becomes
one of their next victims. We watch a bullet speed towards ?
woman's head. Then a close-up shows us a cartoonish bullei
come to a complete stop before it continues between her eyes
The bloodthirsty duo dance like they just stepped out o
a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical and write poetr]
to each other as if their love was as pure and natural as th(
American flag and apple pie.
Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis are engaging as th<
two leads. Because Stone spends most of the time he focus
es on characterization developing Mickey and Mallory, the)
are the only two characters with which the audience can sym
pathize. Completely absorbed in their romance with sex anc
violence, they create their niche in society by destroying others.
Harrelson gets to spray some unforgettable one-liners as
he basks in the media limelight. As if he were the featurec
act in a comedy club, he mutters, This is a tough room" dur
ing an interview. Like a preacher of evil, he tells the work
that "Love kills the demon" and that "If s just murder man
all species do it." And like a wise sage who has knows his wa)
is the right way, he says, Td take an instant of my purity k
a lifetime of your lies."
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& Used Bikes ...AND TH
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Campus Recreatio
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202 Blatt PE Cente
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^^Monday^ ^TXtesdaj^ Wednesday Th
11:00
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d Mickey Knox in Oliver Stone's "Natural Bom Killers."
This charismatic criminal even argues semantics with
i his interviewer, saying he is technically not a serial killer but
i only a mass murderer. A classic moment involves a lively dist
cussion between Mickey and the interviewer about who was
a bigger sensation, Mickey or Manson? Stone reflects back
f to us a world where we actually rate our society's villains ac!
cording to entertainment value!
5 Lewis is especially effective as she uses her sexuality to
J .. .. o lu. ?v.. j u.. i r_i.i L:I J
uiaw 111 iici picjr. ocAuaiijr auuseu vy iici miner as a ciiiiu
i and teenager, she redeems her jaded soul by doing unto oth
ers what has been done to her. Seducing and destroying are
j her addictions. Stone often depicts Mallory as an innocent
girl, dancing about with an angelic glow around her skin un1
der a dark sky. Her paradise lost, replaced by the newfound
- wonders of sexual battery and ultraviolence, is tragic indeed.
Stone gives us glimpses at the inner states of these shat3
tered minds occasionally through flashbacks but mostly
I through media-enhanced case histories which seem all too
- familiar to a culture gorged on this madness.
1 Everything is violence in their world, and even the date;
lines of the film's activities range from "One Year Later" to
i "Super Bowl Sunday," showing how society even structures
) life around violent sport as much as they do around religious
holidays.
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J
and dates are available in the
n Calendar/Handbook.
calendar, stop by the
lpus Recreation, L mm
r, or call us at 777-5261. _________
4 Schedule 1
mrsday Friday Saturday Sunday
High Energy
Gym 308 Ej
y Sculpting High/Low *J
ym 307 Gym 307 Pj
20/20/20* M
Cym 308 P j
:ulty AStafT
richmcnt Ml
iym 308 |J
Step* I j
Gym 308
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lytn 308 Gym 308 |||
High/Low jj
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igh/Low Step*
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&WAK2ACS riAAA i M / % %!
**v?wivo vi?aa : jj ?|/ 01
;et into one of Fitness I EJ
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2/94. No exceptions. . y
Dckbuster
Their cross-country car rides are surrounded by a quagmire
of crimson skies and clanging noises. Their journey is
like a carnival tunnel of love, and they are intentionally oblivious
to the harm they are doing. As they kiss in front of a
drapery of human carcasses, hung like dead meat from blooddrenched
walls, Mickey can only tell Mallory how much he
loves her.
Other fine performances are added by Tom Sizemore as
a headline-grabbing cop and Robert Downey Jr. as an Aussie
auteur of sleaze journalism out to get the story of the century.
His character shoots too, but his shooting of film is considered
just as dangerous to American society as anything
the mass murderers do.
A telling moment tor tne ratings-obsessea reporter is
when he becomes a victim of the madness he has helped create,
and he begs for life by screaming all the "good" stories
he has done over the years. His conjuring of positive credentials
for himself is a stretch indeed.
LikeKubrick did with his visionary film A Clockwork Orange,
Stone makes all the characters except the central stars
obnoxious and uninvolving. Each slaying of a human being
seems but another killing of some mindless idiot. Stone gives
insight into the terrifying childhoods of Mickey and Mallory,
and as they throw all artifacts of childhood off into a deep
chasm, the audience understands the pain which has dehumanized
them, rendering them immune to emotions and
numb to society.
Hurting others seems a fitting alternative to suicide or
incarceration. For Mickey and Mallory, they have already
lived lives in hell and revel in the spiritual fulfillment they
find in a comforting violent American tradition.
Unfortunately the film's ultimate message is clouded by
Stone's ambiguous ending. Perhaps he was afraid of becoming
too preachy as he has before in Born on the 4th of July
and JFK. Stone's failure to give the audience a crucial final
punch leaves this biting commentary without bite. The
haunting images and visually exhausting juggernaut seem
little more than a glorified depiction of rampant massacre
without a final blow.
Instead Stone uses the film as an all-out indictment of
the media throughout the movie. Portraying the scattershot
method of conjuring up news items, the hypnotism of the population
who are persuaded to keep watching, and the extent
to which unscrupulous scavengers will go to dig up more fool's
gold, Stone connects his allegory to today's most preposterous
headlines to cement his point. A world in which Buttofuoco
and Bobbitt get more press for their scandalous lives
than national leaders get for their agendas affecting national
policy is in desperate need of re-examination. In a world
saturated with violence and terror, when American Gladiators
is a popular television show and the murder trial of 0 J.
Simpson captures more headlines than national health care
reform, Stone reminds us how far society has skewed in defining
its promises of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Ignoring the sketchy finale, "Natural Born Killere" is the
most uncompromising film by a major studio in years, and
the credit goes to a director unflinching in the face of controversy.
Taking our society of spectacle just one step further
than today's reality yields what could undoubtedly become
any day now the most frightening and riveting piece of nonfiction
produced in years.
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